alternativehypotheses.com functions in 3 principal stages corresponding to the life cycle of a question:

1st stage, deposit of an hypothesis (left menu, 'Submit an hypothesis'): You start by formulating an hypothesis by proposing several possible opinions (from 2 to 5 possible alternatives corresponding to several levels of truth: true, false, other...). This question and the choices will be submitted to the other scientists/technicians/engineers/experts so that they deliver their opinion. You will have to also indicate a final date or expiration date from which the hypothesis will be closed and will be subjected to checking. This date should not be with less than 12 hours of the moment present. Lastly, you will indicate a method of checking in order to help the members to give the definitive validation of the hypothesis. This method will be able to make use of several links Internet pointing on sites of which you know that they will contain useful information on the hypothesis.

2nd stage, deposit of an opinion (on a card, 'Give my opinions to this hypothesis'): Once an hypothesis is deposited, it is necessary to answer it. You can of course answer the hypothesis which you deposited with stage 1 but also those posed by other Net surfers. You give your opinion on the future truth value while answering the question. You will be able to bring justifications in the form of text but also in the forms of links Internet to affirm your opinion.At the time when the hypothesis reaches its expiration date, adding an opinion becomes impossible. It is then necessary to validate the real answer, that which occurred in the facts and which can be different from the opinions of the members!

3rd stage, validation (on a card of question, 'Validate the hypothesis'): With the same manner that you could enter your opinions, you can now validate the real, final answer of the hypothesis on the basis of scientific proofs you have. To help you there, the member who had initially raised the hypothesis may have proposed a method of validation and prepared useful links. Lastly, you will be able to enter of the justifications and comments for your choice.The statistical engine of alternativehypotheses.com integrates the predictions and the checks in order to assign to the participating members individual performances.

During all these stages, alternativehypotheses.com enables you to record comments on the hypotheses. For that, it is enough to click on the link 'See the opinions and arguments of the participants'.